Apple has turned in a creditable third-quarter result, and even if it didn't break any financial records it did manage a sales record.
For the quarter ending June 30, the company reported $35.0 billion revenue and a net profit of $8.8 billion. These numbers were a substantial increase on the year-ago figures of $28.6 billion and $7.3 billion.
Even though Apple had forecast lower numbers, financial analysts were expecting revenue to be about $37 billion, with earnings per share around $10.23 rather than the $7.79 actually achieved.
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Unit sales were strong, at least for mobile devices.
26.0 million iPhones (up 28% year on year) and a record 17.0 million iPads (up 84%) were sold, although iPod sales continue to decline (by 10% year-on-year to 6.8 million) as the growing number of iPhones and other smartphones being sold cuts further into potential sales.
Even Mac sales saw an increase of 2% to 4.0 million units, which was a third-quarter record.
The results don't look so good on a sequential basis. Comparing Q3 with Q2, revenue was down 11%, with a 22% decline in Asia Pacific and 24% in Japan.
Given Apple's growing reliance on iPhone sales, it is possible that successful smartphone launches by other companies (eg, the Samsung Galaxy S III, which sold 10 million units in less than two months) affected the results.
Still, Apple has the iPhone 5 up its sleeve, and at this stage of its lifecycle you wouldn't expect the iPhone 4S to be selling especially strongly.
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The Americas and Europe held up relatively well, with declines of 3% and 6% respectively.
Apple shares fell more than 5% in after hours trading following the announcement of the results.
